Prodigal Son
by mharawolenczak
Summary: Story about Robert and Lucas. Not what you'd expect. Not sure if this is a one shot or a long one, will depend on feedback.


Author's Note: I know, I know, go finish the long stories! This is kinda AU but kinda not. Up to you. I was standing in my kitchen and this hit me. Hope you enjoy. Not sure if it's a one shot or a long one… will depend on the feedback.

Lucas sat on the dock staring out at the ocean. He'd been hoping Darwin would be around but apparently the dolphin had better things to do. He'd been sitting there for almost an hour when he heard footsteps on the dock behind him. Turning, he saw the one person he'd come out here to avoid.

Robert Bridger.

Eventually the captain had found his son- in a cryostasis chamber in an underwater research lab. He'd been there since his ship had been destroyed.

He didn't even know he had a son and was surprised at the revelation. Michael was his son – but Robert hadn't had anything to do with his conception. Sperm samples had been taken from the frozen Robert and used to impregnate one of the lab's scientists. She'd felt guilty about the whole affair and had fled the station with her son in tow, returning to her native Belgium. She had deposited him at the embassy in Brussels for safety shortly before she was captured and taken back to the station. She'd been killed shortly after.

Robert hadn't taken to Michael yet. He was distant. Lucas could understand that. If he had woken up from their trip to Hyperion and been presented with a son, he'd be a bit distant too. But Robert seemed more distant than he should be. Like he wasn't even trying to connect to his son – or reconnect to his father.

That was what angered Lucas the most. The captain had gone to the ends of the earth to find Robert, and Robert couldn't bring himself to at least fake a smile.

That's why Lucas had left the party. The big party with all of the captain's friends and former crew. All celebrating Robert's return. And Robert couldn't even smile at them.

Lucas had tried to be friendly. He'd been trying for the past week, ever since Nathan had asked him to come to the island to meet Robert. He'd introduced them to each other as his 'sons'. That had made Lucas' day.

Except now he felt like the other brother in the prodigal son parable. He didn't want to be angry at Robert, but he couldn't help it. He wasn't jealous – he just didn't like to see the captain hurting. Watching Robert flinch away from the captain for the umpteenth time had been the last straw and Lucas had fled to the docks.

"Can I sit down?" Robert finally asked.

"Do what you like, it's your dock."

Robert sat down. "Actually it's our dock. Yours, mine, Dad's, Michael's. Although I think Darwin may argue it's his since it's in his ocean."

Lucas forced himself to laugh. "Yea well, no one's gonna begrudge a dolphin for thinking he owns the ocean."

Robert laughed.

Lucas couldn't believe it. Robert had laughed. Here they had spent an entire week together with his family and he couldn't even smile, but he could laugh at a lame joke?

"Alright what gives?" Lucas demanded.

Robert stopped laughing. A frown permeated his face. "I just came to see why you were hiding out here."

"No no," Lucas shook his head, "I mean what gives with you. You come here, you spend half your time frowning and the other half of the time refusing to connect with anybody, and now you're here, laughing? Do you know how badly you father wants to see you laugh? To see you smile? Do you have any idea how lucky you are to have that?" Lucas' voice had escalated and he had stood up. He shook his head in disgust at Robert and turned to walk away.

"Wait." Robert grabbed his hand. "Let me explain. Please."

Lucas stood still for a moment. He sighed then sat back down next to Robert. Leaning back he waited for the other man to talk to him.

"I've been acting ridiculous haven't I?" When Lucas didn't respond he continued. "I just don't know how to act around them. I mean, I'm not old enough to be a father, and here I am, father of a child I never ever though I'd have. And my father? For him it's been years since we saw each other, years for him to forget all the fights, every wrong word. For me it's like it happened yesterday. It still hurts. The both of them, they just remind me of things I don't want to have to think about."

"Your mother." Lucas guessed. He realized that Robert must be missing her.

Robert shook his head and gave a half-smile to Lucas for the effort. "You'd think that wouldn't you? But no. It's not her. Someone more important than her."

Lucas looked a bit confused. It couldn't be Michael's mother, Robert had never met her. "Who then?"

Robert looked at Lucas. He looked scared, apprehensive. He stared back out at the water. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Robert finally answered.

"Chris."

"Chris?" Lucas wondered who this Chris woman was. "Was that you're girlfriend?"

Robert gave a mocking laugh. "No. Chris was my husband."

Lucas sat in shock. Robert was married. Robert was _gay?_

The pieces began to fall into place in Lucas' head. "So that's what you meant about Michael being a child you never thought you'd have. You never thought you'd have children because you're gay."

"Yea."

They sat there for moment before Lucas asked the big question.

"So where is Chris now?"

"Dead. He was serving on the same ship as me."

Lucas was confused again. "But I thought that couples couldn't-"

"They can't," finished Robert. "Chris and I had gotten married while on leave. We had just returned to the boat when the fight broke out. We were in the middle of explaining things to the captain when we were attacked."

"I'm sorry."

The silence continued before Lucas put another piece in place.

"Hey man, look, if you're worried about the captain don't be. He'll be ok with you being gay-"

"No he won't."

"Yes he will, I know the captain he'll-"

"Tell me I'm a disappointment and a shame to the family. Tell me how heartbroken my mother would be?"

"No, he'd accept it. He would understand."

"Yea. Because he understood it so well last time."

Lucas froze. "What do you mean 'last time'?"

"When I told him I was gay. That I'd met someone that made me happy. That we wanted to get married. He told me in no uncertain terms exactly what he though about me."

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry for a lot of things kid."

"Don't call me kid, we're practically the same age." Lucas smiled. "Minus all the cryostasis time."

Lucas continued. "He'd understand this time."

"No he wouldn't," insisted Robert.

"Yes he would," Lucas replied turning to look at him.

"How do you know?"

He stared Robert straight in the eye and told him something that only a select few people were privy to.

"Because when I told him I was gay, he hugged me. Said that he'd love me no matter what and I'd always be Lucas to him no matter what." Lucas reached out and held Roberts hand. "He told me something else, something that didn't make much sense before but does now. He said that a long time ago he used to think people like me were wrong, that we didn't belong. That he had rejected someone very close to him for it. That it took losing that person for him to see that we're all the same."

Robert's eyes slowly filled with tears. Lucas reached out and cupped his chin and continued to talk. Robert stared into his eyes like he so often stared into the sea- they were so alike, Lucas' eyes and the sea.

"He said that being gay doesn't make a person any less worthy of his love. That if he let that stop him, he wouldn't be worthy of theirs."

At those words Robert's tears spilled down his face. He cried for a long time, mourning everything he had lost. His husband. His mother. The lost years with his son. His father's love.

When he was done crying, Robert looked up into the sea-blue eyes and realized that there were many things he'd lost over the years, and many of them he could get back. His mother and Chris may be gone, but his father and Michael were still here.

And in those ocean-blue eyes, he saw the possibility to get back the ability to love another person, the way he had loved Chris.


End file.
